


It's Okay.

by ghostlyghouls



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Misgendering, Other, T slur, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Pidge | Katie Holt, also keith n shiros mum n dad but theyre v minor too so, also pidges family but again theyre minor, broganes, its used once but jsyk, keith n pidge friendship, so until he figures out his birthname n she pronouns r used jsyk, theres also lance n hunk but theyre v minor so im not tagging, this is abt keith finding out hes trans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-20
Updated: 2017-02-20
Packaged: 2018-09-25 17:04:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9831962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlyghouls/pseuds/ghostlyghouls
Summary: Keith's journey to finding out he's a gay trans boy.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for day 20 of the voltron trans week, n i chose the prompt family

Riley was nine when she first heard the word ‘ _trans’_. It was at school, on the playground, she was hanging out with her friends, Lance, and Hunk, when she heard it. Some kids in the year above her was picking on a kid in a year below her, calling them that word, whatever it meant. She told herself to ask Takashi when she got home, and carried on playing with her friends.

School finished, her dad picked her up as usual, and they went home. Takashi was home a little later than usual because he had to stay behind due to a forgotten P.E kit. But Riley still remembered what she wanted to ask him. After dinner, Riley made her way to her brother’s room, and found him studying. She sat on the bed.

“What does trans mean?” She asked, full of curiosity.

Shiro looked surprised at the question, then he explained what it meant.

“So… it’s someone who doesn’t feel like the gender they was supposed to be originally?”

“Uh, yeah.” He paused, “why’d you ask?”

“Oh, I heard some people call this kid that word at my school today. Hey, is that a bad thing? To be trans?”

“Oh, no, no it’s not! Not at all, some people just don’t see that unfortunately.”

“Oh. Well, thank you for explaining, bro.” And with that, she left.

*******

After Shiro had told her what trans meant when she asked, the next day she went to that kid and asked to be friends. She was called Katie, but a nickname of hers was Pidge. Katie was a really nice girl, but she’d get bullied a lot because she was a trans girl. Riley didn’t like that, and got into a fight after someone called her a ‘ _tranny’_. She didn’t quite know what it meant, but the way they said it and the way Pidge looked after they did, made her angry. So she didn’t think, and acted.

She got detention, obviously. Starting a fight wasn’t exactly a good thing, even if you was in the right to protect your friend from bullies.

“Riley…” Shiro said sternly as he was tending to her bruises from the fight. “Why did this happen?”

“Those… _Punks_ … They hurt my friend, she can’t help it if she’s trans! They called her something, a tranny, I think. I don’t know what it means, but Pidge looked upset about it. I didn’t like it.”

“Ah, yeah, that word? That’s a bad word that people call trans people. They shouldn’t’ve said that, or bullied your friend. I’m sorry she had to go through that, is she okay now?”

“Yeah, she’s okay now.”

“Good.” He continued to put a plaster over her cut.

*******

She was ten now, and Pidge and her have become best friends now. They sleep over each other’s houses, play games, and watch _lots_ of conspiracy theory videos. _Lots_. Keith got Pidge into them, at first she refused and said all cryptids are fake, but if you told her that she said that now, she’d deny it. So here they both was now, sitting on Riley’s bed, watching a documentary about Mothman.

“Hey Riley, uh, can I tell you something?” Pidge asked.

“Yeah, of course”

“I think I’m a lesbian.”

A pause. Then she replied.

“That’s when you like girls and you’re a girl, right?”

“Yeah,” Pidge said, letting out a shaky breath. “You’re okay with that?”

“Well, duh, why wouldn’t I be?” She hugged her tight. “You’re my best friend, and I’m glad you told me!”

Tears threatening to spill from Pidge’s eyes, she hugged Riley back, tightly.

“ _Thank you._ ”

*******

She’s eleven now, and she starts questioning herself. She doesn’t know what she’s feeling, but it’s there. It’s always there. It doesn’t leave her. Not even at night, when she’s trying to sleep. She’ll wake up from nightmares, but what was they about? She couldn’t quite pin it down.

*******  

Twelve now. She’s getting angry and reckless. Annoyed at everything. Her mum was expecting the teen mood swings to come a little early, like Shiro’s did, but not this much. Riley’s getting into fights at school a lot. At least once every two days. The door slams shut, signalling that she’s home.

“Riley, dear! Come here for a sec, yeah?” Her mum calls.

Riley groans and drags herself across to her mum.

“Yeah?”

“Sweetie… I’m worried. You’ve been getting into a lot of fights recently, I, your father and I, even Takashi, we are very worried. Please, Riley, you know you can talk to us. Anytime, okay, we are h-“

Riley storms off before her mum could finish. Up to her room, and closes to door. Loudly. Her dad’s yelling at her to come and apologise, while her mum’s yelling for her to come back downstairs.  She slumps on her bed, debating on whether or not to call Pidge. Shiro knocks on her door.

“Riley, c’mon, talk to me if you don’t wanna talk to mum or dad. Please.” He pleaded desperately.

She calls Pidge. Pidge picks up almost immediately.

“Can I come over?”

“Yeah, of course, tell your bro first.”

“Okay.”

*******  

She’s at Pidge’s house, in her room, slumped on her bed. Crying. Pidge is rubbing her back slowly, waiting for her to finish crying. It takes a few minutes until she’s stopped and calmed down a bit.

“You don’t have to say what’s wrong, but if you do wanna, take your time, okay?”

“Yeah…” she sniffed, “thanks. Can we watch that documentary you told me about at break today?”

“Hell yeah.” She sets it up. Halfway through the video and Pidge is pretty sure Riley’s not paying attention, but she doesn’t want to push her. So she cuddles up to her more, and holds her hand. They both sit there, not paying attention, for a bit. Until Riley’s tears start streaming down her face again. This time silently.

Pidge wipes them.

“How did you know you was trans?”

Pidge’s eyes go wide. She wasn’t expecting that.

“Uh, well… I just, knew? God, that’s a terrible explanation. Hm, I guess, I just never really felt I wanted to be called a boy? Like, it made me feel weird inside, and I didn’t like it. I asked my family to stop calling me a boy, and they asked me what I wanted to be called, and I froze. I didn’t know, but I knew I didn’t wanna be a boy. So from then my mum and dad showed me a bunch of trans people and their experiences, and I related to them. Matt showed me what pronouns there was, and we sat there for hours looking at them and trying them out for me.” She laughed, then continued. “We’d pick a pronoun, then make a sentence about me, using that pronoun. That’s how I realised I preferred to be called a girl. I was comfortable with that term and those pronouns. It was… me.”

She looked at Riley, who was staring wide eyed at her, eyes still watery.

“Aw geez, that was a weird explanation wasn’t it? Either way, it’s different for everyone, anyway.”

“It wasn’t, it was great, actually,” she replied. “Thank you.”

“No problem, I’m always here for you. And if you don’t wanna continue this conversation, that’s fine. But when you wanna, I’m here, okay?”

“Okay.” She breathes out, “Can we start the video from the beginning?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t really paying attention either.”

*******  

He’s a boy. He is a boy. He. Is. A. Boy. Riley’s a boy. He was looking up people’s experiences online, and tried out different pronouns and terms, until he came to the conclusion that he is a trans boy. His name, even though it’s gender neutral, didn’t quite feel like him but he was going to keep it for now.

He phones Pidge.

He goes over to hers in case his family overhears their conversation. They talk about how he’s a trans boy, and how proud Pidge is of him. There’s happy tears and lots of hugs. They go through names together, and he has a few he likes. He’s struggling between Dave, Ethan, Adam, and Keith. Pidge askes her family and Riley’s if he can stay over tonight, they say yes.

They spend the rest of the night eating snack food, drinking fizzy drinks, and watching documentaries about aliens.

*******

Next he comes out to Lance and Hunk. They’re both very supportive of him and give him many hugs. Hunk suggests a sleepover at his, with all four of them. They all agree and so do their parents. The night is spent mostly on trying to build the blanket fort. In the end it took about two hours with all the arguing about which part went where, and how it’s not just supposed to just work, but _look_ good too. Pidge sighed a lot that night.

*******

Keith is the name he goes with. He calls Pidge, Hunk, and Lance immediately and tells them.

*******

Keith is thirteen.

“Hey Riley, how was school today?” Shiro asks, putting his arm on his back.

“It was alright, we did an experiment today in science class, it was fun!”

“Great!” He said, “Pidge told me you wanted to ask me something?”

“Oh! Yeah, um. Could you- uhhh. Could you cut my hair please? I want it short.”

Shiro didn’t look shocked or disgusted at all. He smiled and said “okay!” and cut his hair. Why didn’t he look weirded out? Girls wasn’t supposed to have short hair. To Takashi he was still a girl, so why was he so happy to cut his hair?

“Girls are supposed to have long hair.” Keith while Shiro was cutting his hair, but his statement made him stop.

“What makes you think that?”

“Because, that’s what everyone at school says.”

“Riley-“

“Don’t call me that!” Keith had exclaimed before he could stop himself.

“Uh… Okay, what do you want me to call you?”

“I-“ He starts, but freaks out. He wasn’t supposed to say that, he wasn’t ready, he didn’t want his brother to hate him, he didn’t want his parents to hate him. He panics. He runs.

“Ri- uh, wait! Come back!” Shiro loses him after two streets down. He calls their parents.

*******

He’s crying on Pidge’s bed, hugging her while her mum phones his mum to tell them he’s here. He doesn’t want to see them. He doesn’t want them to hate him. Wiping the tears and snot from his puffy red face, he goes downstairs with Pidge when his family gets here. A death grip on her hand, and shaky legs, he walks into the front room where Pidge’s mum and dad are talking to Keith’s. Shiro and Matt are talking, but Shiro notices him and gets up and walks towards him.

His world is spinning. He doesn’t know what’s going to happen but he knows it’s going to be bad. And then Shiro hugs him, crying into his shoulder. He can’t breathe. He wasn’t expecting this. He shouldn’t care. Keith was _trans_ , he shouldn’t care about him.

They all sit down and have a conversation, then decided it would be best if they carried on at home. When they got home, they continued to talk.

“I’m trans.”

Silence.

God, Keith knew he shouldn’t have said that. He shouldn’t have run away and caused a panic. He shouldn’t be _trans_. He’s crying again. Then Shiro puts a hand on his shoulder, and his dad puts his hand on his other shoulder, and his mum puts her hand on his knee. They’re all smiling. They tell him it’s okay, and they love him and they hug him lots. They ask him what pronouns and what name he wants to go by, and he tells them.

He is happy.

*******

Until he’s not. He’s fifteen now, and he just _has_ to have a crush on one of his _bests friends_. Not only that, but he’s a _boy_ , just like Keith. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he’s already _trans_. He can’t be _gay_ as well. That’s too much. So he goes home and cries on his bed, muttering _‘stupid Lance’_ over and over, instead of doing his homework, which makes him get detention the next day.

Just like when he was twelve, he’s getting into fights more. He gets sent home early with a bloody nose and a black eye. Shiro knocks on his door that evening.

“Come in!”

Shiro comes in and closes the door behind him, he sees Keith at the desk drawing. He sets himself down on Keith’s bed and pats the space next to him, motioning for his brother to sit next to him. He groans but compiles anyway.

“What’s up? Why did you come in here?”

“Wow, a brother can’t wanna see his little brother? Wow, Keith” Shiro pretends to be offended.

“Ugh, you know what I meant, Takashi.”

He sighs, and looks off at the wall, not at Keith.

“What’s been goin’ on, _Keith_. Tell me, _please_. Please, don’t shut yourself out again like you did when you was twelve. I- I’m worried sick about you. You’re not eating, you’re not sleeping well, and you’re not doing your homework. You’re getting into _fights_ , Keith, _god_. Please.” He started crying. “ _Please_.”

Keith’s staring at his cracked knuckles, squeezing his fists so tight that his knuckles are turning white now. Something wet falls onto his hands. Tears. Great, now they’re both crying.

“I can’t, Takashi. I’m- I’m s-sorry. I’m sorr-ry-y I’m-“ He hiccups. “I-“

Shiro cuts him off by pulling him into a tight hug. Rubbing his back up and down, his face pressed into his hair.

“Don’t be sorry, just, what’s going on, Keith?”

He takes a shaky breath and shakes his head.

“Please.” Shiro sounds desperate.

“I’m already trans, I- I can’t be… No, not that too.”

“What?”

“Takashi, I…”

“Keith, are you gay?”

Keith starts crying louder.

“Oh, Keith, Keith, no. Shhhh. Shhhh. It’s okay, it’s okay. Shhhh” He’s patting his back while hugging him. “You can be trans _and_ gay, you know? There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“But-“

“No. No buts”

“So it’s okay… that I’m a trans boy… and I like boys.”

“Yes, of course it is. I love you.”

“I love you too. Thank you.”

*******  


End file.
